Vol. XIX, 2011, No.

3, 10 16

M. RAMLI, E. THANON DAWOOD

Mahyuddin RAMLI

email: mahyudin@usm.my Research field: Fiber reinforced concrete

Eethar THANON DAWOOD

High-Strength FloWaBle Mortar ReinforceD By Steel FiBer

email: eethar2005@yahoo.com. Research field: Fiber reinforced concrete School of Housing, Building &Planning Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800USM, Penang-Malaysia.

ABSTRACT
An experimental study was conducted on High-Strength Flowable Mortar (HSFM) reinforced at different percentages of steel fiber (0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75 and 2.0% as volumetric fractions) to determine the density, compressive strength, static modulus of elasticity and flexural strength. The load-deflection curves under astatic flexural load were established, and the flexural toughness indices were obtained in accordance with ASTM C1018. The results indicate that by increasing the fiber content up to 1.75%, the flexural strength and toughness indices are increased. The density, compressive strength and static modulus of elasticity also increased using steel fiber.

KEY WORDS
Steel fiber, reinforcing material, high- strength mortar, flowable mortar.

1. IntroDuction
High-strength concrete or mortar subjected to axial compression is known to be abrittle material with almost no strain-softening behavior. Adding fibers to aplain matrix has little or no effect on its precracking behavior but does substantially enhance its postcracking response, which leads to greatly improved toughness and impact behavior (Al-Oraimi & Seibi, 1995). Besides, ductility in fiber-reinforced cementitious composites is enhanced because the fibers bridge cracked surfaces and delay the onset of the extension of cracks (Aydin, 2007). Many researchers have conducted investigations to study fiber-reinforced concrete in the past. Shah & Naaman (1976) conducted tensile strength, flexural strength and compressive strength tests on mortar specimens reinforced with steel and glass fiber and found that the tensile or flexural strength of steel fiber-reinforced mortar was at least two to three times

that of plain mortar specimens. Similarly, Nataraja, et al. (1999) observed that the effect on the compressive strength of adding steel fibers to concrete ranges from negligible and sometimes up to 25%, whereas the addition of steel fibers significantly increases the strain capacity and elastic deformation toughness of the concrete matrix by about 75%. Modern concrete can be designed to have agreat degree of flowability, which allows the concrete to flow in congested reinforcement areas and fill complicated formwork segregating (Okamura & Ouchi, 2007; Gang, et al., 2003). Mortar serves as the basis for the properties of flowing concrete, and assessing the properties of flowable mortar is an integral part of the design of flowing concrete, (Domone & Jin, 1999). On the other hand, the repair mortar applied to concrete is usually hard to compact well; therefore, repair mortar with ahigh degree of flowability may bring considerable advantages to anarrow mould system (Khayat & Morin, 2002). The main concern with high-

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strength mortar is increasing the brittleness when increasing the strength; thus it becomes amore acute problem to improve the ductility of High-Strength Flowable Mortar (HSFM) (Zhou, et al., 1994). The experience gained using normal strength fiber-reinforced concrete may be applicable to high-strength flowable mortar, but the effectiveness of fiber reinforcement in high-strength flowable mortar may be different and needs to be investigated (Balendran, et al., 2002). Therefore, the objective of this study is to assess the effects of using steel fiber at different volume fractions in amix of High-Strength Flowable Mortar (HSFM) and study some properties of this mortar.

Tab. 2 Characteristics of Steel fiber. Fiber Properties Average fiber length, mm Average fiber diameter, mm (I/d) aspect ratio Tensile strength (MPa) Ultimate elongation% Specific gravity Quantity 30 0.56 54 > 1100 <2 7.85

2. Materials anD miX ProPortions

2.1. Materials
The cement used in the mortar mixtures was ordinary Portland cement type I, aproduct of Tasek Corporation Berhad. Silica fume from Scancem Materials Sdn. Bhd. was used as apartial replacement of the cement. The chemical compositions of ordinary Portland cement and silica fume are given in Table 1. An amount of 1.8-2.2 % of the superplasticizer (SP) Conplast SP1000 Fosroc Sdn. Bhd. was used in the weight of the binder to enhance the flowability of all the mixes. The fine aggregate used was natural sand with afineness modulus of 2.86 and amaximum size of less than 5 mm. Tab. 1 Chemical composition of ordinary Portland cement and silica fume. Constituent Lime (CaO) Alumina (Al2O3) Silica (SiO2) Ordinary Portland Cement % by weight 64.64 21.28 5.60 3.36 2.06 2.14 0.05 0.64 0.92 52.82 21.45 9.16 10.2 Silica fume % by weight 1.0 90 1.2 2.0 0.6 0.5 0.8 2.4 ---------------------

The steel fiber used in this study is hook ends low carbon cold drawn produced by Hunan Sunshine Steel Fiber Co. Ltd, and its characteristics are shown in Table 2. .

2.2 Mix proportions

The design of the mortarscomposition is given in Table 3. Nine mixes were evaluated. In all the mixes the amounts of cement, silica fume, sand and free water were kept constant. The waterbinder (cement+ silica fume) ratio was 0.43, and the silica fume replacement was 10%. The amount of superplasticizer was changed from 1.8% to 2.2% by the weight of the binder materials, content to maintain the appropriate flowability for all the mixes. The control mix (M0) was designed according to the absolute volume method given by the American Concrete Institute (ACI). Steel fiber at volumetric fractions of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25.1.5, 1.75 and 2.0 % of the mixes was used in preparing the M1-M8 mixes.

3. Test methoDs
Three 50mm cube samples were prepared for each mix to test the density and compressive strength of the mortar after curing them in water until the time of the test. The flow test for the mixes was performed according to EN 1015-3. The mixes were designed for a flow of 150 mm 10mm. The cube specimens were left in the molds for 24 hours at 20 C after casting. After demolding, the specimens were kept in plain water until the time of the test. The test for the saturated surface dry density of the specimens at the time of the test was adopted and implemented according to EN 1015-6. The test for compressive strength was performed directly after the density test according to EN 1015-11 at each stage of the test. The static modulus of elasticity test was achieved using 150 300 mm cylinders according to ASTM C469. Besides, three 40 40 160mm prismatic steel molds were used to prepare the specimens for the flexural strength test according to EN 1015-11, and the toughness indices were determined according to ASTM C1018.

Iron Oxide (Fe2O3) Magnesia (MgO) N2O LOI C3S Sulphur Trioxode (SO3)

Lime saturation factor C2S

C4AF

C3A

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Tab. 3 Mortar Mixes proportions. Index M0 M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 Cement Kg.m-3 550 550 550 550 550 550 550 550 550 Silica fume Kg.m-3 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 Water Kg.m-3 260 260 260 260 260 260 260 260 260 SP % 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.2 2.2 Sand Kg.m-3 1410 1410 1410 1410 1410 1410 1410 1410 1410 W+SP/B 0.43 0.43 0.43 0.43 0.43 0.43 0.43 0.43 0.43 Steel Fiber % 0 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 1.25 1.50 1.75 2.00 Flow % 160 155 150 150 145 145 140 140 140

4. Results anD Discussion

4.1. Saturated surface dry density
Table 4 shows the results of the saturated surface dry density for all the mixes. The saturated surface dry density at 7 and 28 days for the different mixes show that there is arise in the density as the volume fraction of the steel fiber is increased, which is due to the specific gravity of the fiber, which increases the overall density of the mortar as shown in Figure 1. .

provide the ability to delay formation of micro-cracks and arrest their propagation afterwards up to acertain extent of the fibers volume fraction (Mustafa & Yaman, 2007, Burak et al., 2007). The percentage

4.2. Compressive strength

From Table 4 and Figure 2, it can be concluded that the increase in the volume fraction of the steel fiber in the mix increases the compressive strength due to the improvement in the mechanical bond strength between the steel fibers and mortar, where the fibers Tab. 4 Mechanical Properties of Mortar Mixes. Index M0 M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 Steel Fiber % 0 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 1.25 1.50 1.75 2.00 Density Kg.m-3 (7days) 2280 2310 2320 2335 2340 2355 2365 2380 2385 Density Kg.m-3 (28days) 2300 2340 2340 2350 2360 2370 2380 2400 2400 Compressive strength (MPa) (7days) 43.9 45.6 46.8 47.9 49.8 50.7 48.3 46.1 44.2 Compressive strength (MPa) (28days) 55.3 57.2 58.9 59.8 60.9 63.1 59.8 57.1 55.7 Static modulus of elasticity (GPa) (28 days) 33.1 35.4 37.8 39.8 41.1 43 44.1 44.9 46.1

Fig. 1 Relation between fiber content with saturated surface dry density at 28 days.

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increase in compressive strength by using 1.25 % of the steel fiber in the HSFM was about 14%. The comparison between the control mortar mix (M0) and the mix with the highest volume fraction of steel fiber (2%) used in this study (M8) shows that there is no enhancement of the compressive strength, which is mainly due to the non-homogeneous distribution of the fibers within the mortar mix, which causes adrop in the compressive strength (Markovic, et al., 2003). The effect of steel fiber with each increase in density and compressive strength (as shown in Figure 2) illustrates that at volume fractions of 1.25% or less, the compatibility of the increments for density and compressive strength related to the inclusion of steel fiber can be noted.

Fig. 3 Relation between fiber content and static modulus of elasticity (Ec) at 28 days. Figure3. The static modulus of elasticity is increased by about 39% when using 2% of the steel fiber as avolumetric fraction. This is attributed to the high elastic modulus of the elasticity of the steel fibers , which enhances the elastic deformation capacity of the mortar mixes with the inclusion of steel fibres (Nataraja et al., 1999). .

4.3. Static modulus of elasticity

The results of the static modulus of elasticity test are presented in Table 4. It can be concluded that the static modulus of elasticity increases with the volume fraction of steel fiber as shown in

4.4. Flexural strength

The flexural strength of the high-strength flowable mortar mixes is shown in Table 5 and Figure 4. An inspection of Figure 3 indicates that alinear relationship exists between the flexural strength and the steel fibers volume fraction. The increase in the flexural strength of the mix containing a1.75% volumetric fraction of steel fiber is 42% higher than the control mix, which may be due to the better compaction and homogeneity of the fiber distribution in HSFM. It can also be noted that the use of more than 1.75% of steel fiber slightly decreases the improvement in flexural strength, which

Fig. 2 Relation between fiber content with saturated surface dry density at 28 days. Tab. 5 Flexural & Toughness Indices for Mortar Mixes. Index M0 M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 Steel fiber % 0 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 1.25 1.50 1.75 2.00 Flexural strength (MPa) (7days) 7.26 7.68 7.96 10.17 10.43 10.85 11.27 14.74 12.1 Flexural strength (MPa) (28days) 8.44 8.72 9.49 11.65 13.25 13.52 14.28 17.1 15.9

Toughness Index (I 5) (7days) 1 1 3.35 3.45 3.89 4.12 4.75 4.95 4.65

Toughness Index (I 5) (28 days) 1 1 3.64 3.85 4.10 4.28 5.10 5.35 5.05

Toughness Index (I 10) (7days) 1 1 4.95 5.25 5.68 6.38 7.52 7.93 7.78

Toughness Index (I 10) (28 days) 1 1 5.42 5.93 6.16 6.73 7.93 8.45 8.22

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Fig. 4 Relation between fiber content and flexural strength at 28 days.

Fig. 6 Influence of fiber content at 7 days with relative strength and toughness indices.

may be due to the physical difficulties in providing ahomogenous distribution of the fibers within the mortar mix (Markovic, et al., 2003).

4.5. Toughness Indices

The Toughness indices can be determined according to ASTM C1018. The I5 and I10 indices can be calculated from this test as the ratio of the area under the load deflection curve up to 3 and 5.5 times the first crack deflection, divided by the area up to the first crack deflection respectively as shown in Figure 5. .Table 5 summarizes the results of the I5 & I10 indices for 7 and 28-day specimens. It can be observed that fiber fractions of more than 0.5% have aclear effect on the toughness indices, which increase as the fiber fraction also increases. This can be attributed to the ability of the fibers to arrest cracks at both the micro and macro levels. At the micro level, the fibers inhibit the initiation of cracks, whereas at the macro level, the fibers provide effective bridging and impart sources of toughness and ductility

Fig. 7 Influence of fiber content at 28 days with relative strength and toughness indices. (Balaguru & Shah, 1992; Banthia & Sappakittipakorn, 2007). This has also been determined by other researchers (Mohammadi, et al., 2008), whereas the flexural toughness can be increased as the fiber volume fraction increases for acertain aspect ratio. However, the use of 1.75% steel fiber can be considered as the most appropriate percentage to be employed in HSFM for the toughness indices. Figures 6 and 7 show the effects of using different volume fractions of steel fiber after 7 and 28 days of normal water curing. .

5. Conclusions
This paper describes the results of an experimental study performed on high-strength flowable mortar reinforced with various volume fractions of steel fiber. The major findings of this study are: 1. The use of steel fiber at small volume fractions (0.5% volume fraction) has clear effects on the properties of high-strength flowable mortar.

Fig. 5 Toughness indices according to the testing method ASTM C1018.

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2. The compressive strength results show that the use of the steel fiber increases the compressive strength and that the best improvement is obtained when the steel fiber is 1.25% of the mortar mix. This is due to the mechanical bond between the cement paste and the steel fiber. . 3. The static modulus of elasticity of the flowable mortar increases with the inclusion of steel fiber. The use of 2% steel fiber in the mortar mix increases the Ec by about 39%. 4. The flexural strength results show that there is acompatible increase in flexural strength by increasing the fiber content. The use of 1.75% steel fiber as avolumetric fraction gives the highest increase, but beyond this percentage there is aslight decrease in this improvement. .

5. The toughness indices results illustrate that the inclusion of steel fiber leads to significant improvements in the ductility and the absorption capacity as the volume fraction of the steel fiber is increased. .

6. AcknoWleDgement
The work described in this paper was supported by agrant from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). This support is gratefully acknowledged. This work represents part of the PhD work of the second author. .

REFERENCES

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for steel fiber reinforced concrete under compression. Cement & Concrete Composite; 21, 1999, pp. 383-390. [21] Neville, A.M: Properties of concrete. Fourth and Final edition, 1995. [22] Okamura, H. & Ouchi, M.: Self compacting concrete. J. Adv. Concr Technol,1(1), 2003, pp.1-15. [23] Shah, S. P. & Naaman, A. E.:Mechanical properties of glass and steel fiber reinforced mortar. ACI Journal; 73(1), 1976, pp.50-53. [24] Steffen, G. & Joost, C. W.: Parameter study on the influence of steel fibers and coarse aggregate content on the fresh properties of self compacting concrete. Cement & Concrete Research; 31, 2001, pp.1793-1798. . [25] Zhou, F. P., Barr, B. I. G. & Lydon, F. D.: Fracture mechanical properties of high strength concrete with varying silica fume content and aggregates. Cement &Concrete Research, 25(3),1994, pp. 543-52.

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